Ben Greenfield gives a step-by-step spoken tutorial on how to do an ice bath/cold soak safely and more comfortably. He lists potential benefits of cold thermogenesis (e.g., increased nitric oxide, reduced inflammatory cytokines, vagus nerve stimulation, reduced joint pain, cellular resilience/anti-aging), then focuses on a preparatory breath protocol (30–60 seconds of belly 'Breath of Fire'), entering technique (enter on an exhale, lower gently to avoid sympathetic activation), face dunking to engage the vagus nerve, and in-bath box breathing (4-count in, hold, out, hold). Recommended exposure times: short sessions of 2–5 minutes (3 minutes as a common target) or longer for athletes; an optional 3x3 protocol (three rounds of ~3 minutes with ~60s fire-breathing between) is described.
Questions this video answers
June 8, 2019
About 30 to 60 seconds
Four-count in, four-count hold, four-count out, four-count hold (preferably through the nose)
Two to five minutes (three minutes is suggested as a common target)
Do ~3 minutes in the ice bath, get out, do ~60 seconds of fire breathing, then repeat two more times (three rounds of ~3 minutes)
Chapters
Hey, I'm Ben Greenfield. I get a lot of questions about how to do an ice bath or a cold soak properly. Now, you've no doubt heard about all the benefits of what they call cold thermogenesis or cryotherapy. Increased nitric oxide production, which is like Viagra for your whole body. Decreased levels of inflammatory cytokines. Decreased joint pain. Increased stimulation of what's called the vagus nerve, which helps to activate your nervous system. And an overall buildup of cellular resilience that even has an anti aging and a longevity. Trouble is they suck, right? They absolutely suck. You get in that water and you're. And you're trying to last. You're trying to last and your fingers are tingling and you don't know what to do. Well, that's because a lot of people just think an ice bath is about getting in the bath. But there's kind of a pre prep period that you do prior to getting in. And also some simple tips that I'll give you while you're in there to help this be a lot more comfortable for you. It's never going to be 100% comfortable. If it was, it wouldn't have the effects that it did. Just like exercise or being in the sauna, you got to get a little bit hot in the sauna. You got to get a little bit tired during exercise. You got a little. Get a little bit cold during a cold bath. But I'm going to give you a few tips to make this more simple. So the first is your breath work. Going in. I talked about the tingling hands and the cold feet. Well, you can warm your body from the inside out. I mean, ancient yogic wisdom, the Breath of Fire. You may have heard of the Wim Hof technique, the man called the iceman who's able to withstand cold with his breath. And it's a very simple concept. When you do this, you'll also increase, like I mentioned, nitric oxide production, so you'll get more blood flow to your extremities and you'll be able to handle the cold a little bit easier. So what you'll do is for about 30 to 60 seconds before you begin the cold exposure, you're going to want to breathe in and out.
I'm breathing from my belly. I like to place both hands on my belly button to really kind of give myself a feel for breathing in through my belly. And, and I'm going to continue that breath cycle for 30 to 60 seconds. This is what breathes off or, I'm sorry, maintains A little bit of carbon dioxide helps to open up vessels and basically makes you more resilient to the cold. So again.
After I've done this for about 30 to 60 seconds, I finish with a giant exhale.
And I hold. Some people like to get in the water as they're holding that exhale. Some people like to get in the water as they're holding the inhale. I like to get in the water as I'm holding the exhale because I feel like my parasympathetic nervous system is more activated and I'm able to hold my breath for a longer period of time, which allows me to get through that initial what's called mammalian dive reflex, where you want to go as soon as you get into the water. So let's go over to the water. We're going to pretend that I've done my 30 to 60 seconds of fire breathing. So now I'm ready, I've exhaled, I'm holding that exhale. And now after I've held that exhale, which I would ideally be doing at the edge of whatever body of water I'm going to get into, I'm holding the exhale. And now I'm going to get into.
The pool and I'm going to lower myself gently and resist that urge to.
So I'm holding the exhale.
Lowering myself gently into the water very gently.
If you splash in, you're going to activate that sympathetic nervous system. So you lower yourself very gently. Almost like the way I like to think of it, like if a mom were going to wash her baby. You want to treat your body the same way.
When you're getting into the ice bath.
So basically I'm very relaxed and moving my body very slowly, almost Tai Chi esque. And then to really activate the vagus nerve, ideally when you get into the.
Ice bath, you want to dunk your head. Don't go upside down.
That's very stressful for the body because you get water up your nose. I'll show you a little technique in.
A second that will relax the body even more. But you can just kind of put your head under.
Thumb up.
You can do a few of those face dunks if you want to. And then what you want to do.
Is just open up your body, which will activate your parasympathetic nervous system versus.
Being hunched over in a fetal curled up position. And once you're in this position, the very best form of breathing to do, bar none. Now that you've done your breath of fire, you've gotten in on your Exhale is box breathing. Box breathing is very simple. Four count in, four count, hold, four count out, four count, hold, preferably all through the nose. So it's.
Hold.
Out, 2, 3, 4.
Hold, 2, 3, 4 in, 2, 3.
4 for hold, so on and so forth. Now, you don't have to stay in here 20 minutes. If I'm working with a marathon or an Ironman triathlete or somebody getting ready for say like buds, I'll have them stay in the ice bath for a long period of time to decrease inflammation and really get the body very used to the pull. You don't have to get to the shivering state. Two to five minutes is fine. If you can just box breed your way through two to five minutes. That's a pretty good sweet spot. And kind of a cool workout for you to try is do the two to five minutes I like to go with. Three is a magic number.
Get out.
Do another round of that fire breathing for about 60 seconds. Get back in, do three more minutes.
Get out.
Fire breathing, back in for three minutes. It's a 3x3 ice bath and it works really well if you do that breathing in between. So those are my tips for you for getting the most out of your ice bath session. So in review fire breathing, get in on your exhale, lower yourself gently into the water, move very slowly, make sure your face goes under, and then once you relax and open, begin to do your box breathing. And if you'd like, do a few rounds of that. Thanks for watching. Enjoy your ice bath.
